1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of telecommunications, and in particular to providing caller identification.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Telemarketing companies solicit business for their clients by placing large numbers of telephone calls to prospective customers. Generally, telemarketing firms are staffed with several telemarketing operators that have several telephone connections to a telephone network. These telephone connections are typically over Integrated Digital Services Network (ISDN) lines or Dedicated Access Lines (DALs). The telemarketing operators continually place telephone calls to prospective customers on behalf of their telemarketing clients.
Caller ID is a telephone service that provides a caller's telephone number to a called party during call set-up. The called party may view the caller's number when deciding whether to answer the call. The called party may also block calls from particular caller numbers.
Recently, government entities have required telemarketing firms to identify their clients when placing telemarketing calls. The telemarketing operators must now specify a caller number that is associated with the client who is responsible for the call. With multiple clients, there are now multiple caller numbers for the telemarketing operators to manage in order to specify the correct caller number on a per call basis. Although ISDN lines allow telemarketing operators to specify caller numbers on a per call basis, ISDN lines are also more expensive than DALs. Unfortunately, DALs do not currently allow the telemarketing operators to specify caller numbers on a per call basis.